January 2009 Archives

After soaking overnight

I'm making another loaf of multigrain struan. This time I precooked 1/4 cup of steel-cut oats and 1 tbsp of millet together in 1 cup of water for about 15 minutes, until the water was all soaked up/evaporated.

The cooked grains came to about 4 ounces, so I added about an ounce of flax seeds and an ounce of amaranth to bring the grains up to 6 ounces.

The grains are mixed with 2 ounces of flour, 1/2 tsp salt, and 6 ounces of milk as before.

I took a piece of my mother starter to make into a starter for the loaf of bread I'm making tomorrow.

2.25 oz mother starter
6.75 oz whole wheat flour
5 oz filtered water

Mix it all together, then knead it for 2 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes then knead it for another minute. Place it in a bowl and let rise for 4-6 hours.

I'm just going to leave it at room temp overnight since I mixed it up pretty late.

Wow, this is tasty. The oats give it such a good flavor. I love the mix of grains and the different textures they offer. Definitely a winner!

Preheated the oven to 425°F.

The loaves proofed for an hour, and right before baking I cut a slit down the middle of each loaf with a serrated knife. When they went in the oven I lowered the temp to 350°F. They baked for a total of 40 minutes, rotating the pan after 20 minutes.

The dough fermented for an hour, then I shaped it into two smaller round(ish) loaves. I placed them on a parchment-lined baking sheet (also sprayed the parchment with cooking spray). Brushed the tops with water and sprinkled with poppy seeds.

I've decided not to take step-by-step photos this time because the process is basically the same as before.

Ingredients:
multigrain soaker
14 oz starter
2 oz whole wheat flour
5/8 tsp (5 g) salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 oz honey
.5 oz canola oil

Extra flour needed: 4.5 oz

Combined as before (except I didn't have to cut the soaker into smaller pieces - it poured).

My soaker this time was pretty goopy, not at all like my last one, which had a consistency more like an actual dough. It took about a cup of extra flour to make up for it.

I decided to make a multigrain bread next. The whole wheat was good, but a little boring. I'm following the recipe for Multigrain Struan and there isn't a specific combination of grains suggested. I went with steel-cut oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth, flax seeds, and sesame seeds. The steel-cut oats, millet, and quinoa needed to be precooked to soften them up. I cooked the millet and quinoa together, 2 tbsp of each simmered with 1/2 cup of water until the water was absorbed. Then I cooked about 1/4 cup of the oats with 3/4 cup water for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The recipe calls for 6 ounces total of any combination of grains, and my cooked grains ended up weighing more than that (between 7 and 8 ounces). I used about 5 ounces of the grains I'd cooked, then added flax seeds, amaranth, and sesame seeds to bring it up to 6 ounces.



The grains are mixed with 2 ounces of whole wheat flour, 6 ounces milk, and 1/2 tsp salt.



My resulting mixture is much thinner than my last soaker. I wonder if the partially cooked oats had too much extra moisture in them. Hopefully they'll absorb a lot of the liquid. All the grains I used were pretty coarse, so that probably has something to do with it too. I guess I'll just need more flour in the final dough.

My last loaf started to get moldy a couple days ago. I've noticed that homemade bread never lasts long enough for me to go through it all, so I've decided to make two smaller, free-form loaves this time and freeze one of them.

I hadn't touched the starter since I made bread last weekend. To refresh it I took a 3.5 ounce piece (discarding the rest) and repeated the directions for the mother starter.

It's a different flavor than I'm used to, but it's tasty. Not as sour as sourdough, but there's definitely some acidity there.

I think it could have baked for a little longer. During the last ten minutes I kept taking it out to test it, so I'm sure that didn't help.

The milk wash probably wasn't necessary. That wasn't in the directions but I remember it working well with a previous loaf of bread. I also may have let it proof a tad too long, because it was starting to hang over the edges of the pan. It did rise quite a bit more in the oven too.

It took about an hour and 15 minutes for the dough to proof. While it was proofing I preheated the oven to 425°F. The baking temperature is 350°F, but preheating to a higher temp makes up for the heat that's lost when the oven door is opened.

When the dough was ready, I put it in the oven and reduced the temp to 350°F. After 20 minutes I rotated the pan, then baked for another 30 minutes, until the center reached at least 195°F.





It's going to be hard to wait a full hour until I can cut into it and taste-test!

I let the dough rise for a full hour.



Then I shaped it into a loaf and put it in an oiled 8"x4" pan. I lightly brushed it with milk and sprinkled it with a little wheat germ and whole wheat flour.

I'm letting it rise (proof) for another 45 minutes to an hour, until the dough rises about 1 1/2 inches above the rim of the pan.

The time has finally come to make some bread. This is the soaker that I made last night.



This is 14 ounces of my mother starter. I have about 8 ounces leftover which will need to be refreshed when I'm ready to make my next loaf.



I divided the soaker into 12 smaller pieces, to make it easier to combine with the other ingredients.



Next, I did the same thing with the starter.



The pieces are sprinkled with flour so they don't stick together.



The final ingredients are 1.5 ounces honey (or any other form of sugar), 1 ounce canola oil (or melted butter), 2 ounces whole wheat flour, 5/8 tsp salt (5 grams), and .25 ounce yeast (2 1/4 tsp).



Since my yeast was active dry instead of instant, I mixed it with a little warm water to hydrate it.



Next, everything is mixed together in a big bowl.



This can be done with a stand mixer, but I opted to get down and dirty and use my hands.



Then I dumped it out onto a floured surface and kneaded it for 3-4 minutes. I let it rest for 5 minutes and prepared a lightly oiled bowl.



I kneaded it for another minute or so, then formed it into a ball, put it in the bowl, and covered it with plastic wrap. Now I'm letting it ferment for 45 minutes to an hour, until it is 1 1/2 times its original size.

Extra flour needed for this dough: 3/4 ounce

All the recipes in this book begin with a soaker to soften the whole wheat flour. It's supposed to yield a softer loaf.

8 ounces of flour is mixed with 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used fine sea salt) and 7 ounces of scalded (then cooled) milk (I used 1%). Then it sits, covered, at room temperature overnight, or 12-24 hours.

This picture was taken 6 hours after I mixed it together. I let it sit for a full 8 hours, then kneaded it back into a ball to degas it. Now it's covered tightly and in the refrigerator.

Tomorrow night I'm going to make the soaker for the bread I'm baking on Saturday. The soaker and part of the starter gets combined with the remaining dough ingredients to make the final dough.

This was my seed culture 7 hours after the beginning of phase 4. I was really happy to see some activity. I refrigerated it overnight and this morning I started making my starter.



Start with 3.5 ounces of the culture (about half) in a large bowl.



Add 10.5 ounces flour and 8 ounces filtered water.



Mix with a spoon for about a minute until it forms a ball. Let it rest for about 5 minutes.



Knead (with wet hands) for a minute until smooth.



Transfer to a clean container, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and leave at room temperature for about 4-8 hours, until it doubles in size.

As I was making this, I noticed that it smelled really familiar, but not like dough. Then it hit me. It smells like raw butternut squash. Weird.

By the end of the day my starter will be ready to use. I plan on baking my first loaf of 100% whole wheat bread on Saturday.

Before: Finally, some activity


After: Phase 4

Six days later and I'm finally able to post an update. My culture finally started to look alive yesterday morning. I decided to give it another day before moving on to phase 4.

I realized that the real reason my culture is taking twice as long to develop as the book directs is that it's cold in here. I should have kept it in the pantry (where our heater is). It's always warm in there.

This morning I proceeded to phase 4: discarding half of the phase 3 culture and adding 2 ounces flour and 1.5 ounces filtered water. This is supposed to swell and nearly double in size in 4-24 hours (so in my case, 2 days...). The next step is making the mother starter. Finally. I may actually be able to make some bread this weekend.

So, I think I prematurely gave up on my first culture. It's just slow, probably because I don't have the (optional) diastatic malt powder. I couldn't find any and didn't feel like waiting for it to ship if I ordered it online.

This morning I moved on to phase 3, which is adding 1.5 ounces of flour and 1.5 ounces filtered water. The mixture gets a bit thicker at this stage. I'm supposed to move on to the next phase whenever it starts getting bubbly - 24, 48, 72 hours? Who knows.

So, this one is acting the exact same way the last one was. Moved on to phase 2.

Attempt #2

I started a new culture this morning because I have a bad feeling about my first one. I'm hanging on to the old one, just in case it starts to show some activity.

The first culture was showing promise until I stirred it the first time. It had changed consistency. Reinhart recommends stirring with a wet utensil so the mixture doesn't stick to it, so I wet a spoon with tap water and stirred it. I think the tap water may have contaminated it, because the next time I checked the mixture, it had gone flat and there was a layer of liquid on the top. It's been like that ever since. From now on, I'm only using filtered water.

Phase 1 sponge


After adding more flour and juice

My culture isn't really doing much of anything. It seems to be separating and I'm not sure that's supposed to happen. I moved on to phase 2, which is adding another 1/2 ounce of flour and 1 ounce of pineapple juice. It's supposed to show signs of fermentation in the next day or two and become bubbly or foamy. If it doesn't I guess I'll have to start over.

The frist step in making the starter is making a seed culture. Reinhart provides two different methods and I opted for the pineapple juice solution. On the first day 1 ounce of flour is mixed with 2 ounces of pineapple juice. I'm supposed to stir it a couple times a day and in about 24-48 hours it should start to ferment. After 48 hours I'll proceed to Phase 2.